1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to modeling languages and, more specifically, to a system, a computer-implemented method, and computer program product for configurable Unified Modeling Language building blocks.
2. Description of the Related Art
Unified Modeling Language™ (UML) is a standardized general-purpose modeling language in the field of software engineering. Unified Modeling Language was developed from a set of previously used modeling languages and includes a set of graphical notation techniques to create abstract models of specific systems, referred to as Unified Modeling Language models. The Unified Modeling Language standard specification may be obtained from The Object Management Group Inc., which administers the standard, over the Internet, by contacting info@omg.org.
Unified Modeling Language 2.1 is a version of the Unified Modeling Language with a very broad scope. The current specification of the Unified Modeling Language covers a large and diverse set of application and development stages including requirements, design, implementation, testing and operation. The identified stages suggest that the modeling language should be structured modularly, with the ability to select only the components of the language of direct interest. On the other hand, the flexibility provided increases the likelihood that different Unified Modeling Language tools support different subsets of the language, leading to interchange problems between the tools.
In an attempt to overcome the interchange problem, the Unified Modeling Language 2.1 specification defines compliance levels. There are only four compliance levels defined for the complete Unified Modeling Language specification. Dividing the components as defined in the Unified Modeling Language specification into only four levels does not typically give enough flexibility for building a set of parts for certain applications or development stages.